President Donald Trump took the stage Friday night before a packed room of journalists at a White House correspondents’ dinner that had been pushed back from its original April date after a gunman disrupted the first event. “As I said three months ago, the show must go on,” Trump told the crowd upon arriving.
Trump walked into the ballroom to polite applause and received thanks from White House Correspondents’ Association president Weijia Jiang of CBS News for his participation. Following dinner, the president remained seated through more than an hour of awards presentations, which included recognition for numerous journalists who had produced critical reporting on him and his administration over the past year.
Jiang opened the evening with a lighthearted nod to the circumstances. “Let’s try this again,” she said, adding that the White House press corps “always has a follow-up.” She then shifted to a more somber tone, acknowledging the chaos and distress caused by the original dinner in April, when a gunman rushed a security checkpoint and forced everyone out of the venue.
“Tonight our message is this: We are back,” Jiang declared. “We will not be intimidated. We refuse to let an act of violence have the final word.”
The makeup-up event was held in the ballroom of the Waldorf Astoria hotel, a more intimate space accommodating around 700 attendees. Security was noticeably tighter — guests entered through a single door, passed through two rounds of ID verification, and moved past a detection dog, armed officers, and security personnel. The traditional red carpet and pre-dinner cocktail receptions were eliminated.
Trump had been expected to unleash sharp — “rather nasty,” by his own description — criticism of the press, remarks he had originally prepared for April before the evening was cut short. However, early in his Friday speech, he indicated he had set aside those prepared remarks in favor of a different approach.
“This is really the largest group of ‘Trump Derangement Syndrome’ people put together at one time,” Trump said to the assembled journalists.
